The Janus Syndrome
by A Guy Named Goo
Summary: Pip told Seras that they would fight together. What happens when he decides he should have a more active role in the partnership? PxS


Disclaimer- I don't own Hellsing or any of the characters from it.

Warnings- AU, graphic ftm themes, spoilers for the manga.

**The Janus Syndrome**

**By A Guy Named Goo**

**Beta'd by Thess**

London had become so unrecognizable and alien to Seras in past few months that she actually welcomed the chilly rain that decided to fall as she ran. Her feet splashing in the growing puddles on the cracked sidewalks and conspicuously empty roads, the spray in her face that should have been uncomfortable as she attempted to focus...it seemed to bring her home. To her real home, a place that had always seemed far removed from even pre-war London, which seemed lost so long ago only to be recalled more fondly than any fairy tale setting. But although the rain seemed to offer a promise of normalcy when all was said and done, now certainly wasn't the time to get sentimental.

"Over there! To the left!" her companion urged her. It didn't alarm her that the words had come out of her mouth. Although to the casual observer she was speaking to herself, if one listened they would have realized that the voice had a different accent, a different cadence, even a different pitch. Seras used used to this, however, and took the advice given to her, ducking into a thin alleyway between two shops and ignoring the swastika painted over the window of one of the buildings.

At the end of the alleyway there was a brick wall. It was about a meter taller than she was. She examined it, tensing her muscles in preparation of jumping over the wall, but a sudden, painful contraction of the muscles in her abdomen sent her falling over onto the wet ground, biting her lip to keep from crying out as she clutched her stomach. She could taste her own blood in her mouth as her fangs sunk into her lip, but that didn't concern her. She released her lip, getting to her hands and knees. Another painful spasm, and she was on her side, taking deep, unnecessary breaths in an effort to relax herself. The oxygen, of course, wasn't having any effect, and she gave up the effort of working her essentially useless dead lungs, pushing herself up into a sitting position slowly.

"Pip..." she implored weakly, as if his place inside of her put him in a better position to know what was going on. Another spasm, and as Seras rode it out she pushed herself back, leaning against the brick wall she had been readying herself to jump over only moments ago.

"Relax," came the response from her own mouth. "It will be all right in a few moments. I promise."

Seras was sweating profusely, but the perspiration was washing away with the torrents of rain that had already soaked her to the bone. Instead of focusing on her physical surroundings, on the fact that her hard-fought distance between herself and her persuers was quickly diminishing and she was woefully unarmed, she turned her attention inward, toward Pip. Her body was alien to him. He rarely knew what was going to happen with it even when she did. There was no way he could know what was happening now, unless...

"Pip, what are you doing to me?" Seras asked, trying not to sound angry or accusatory. Although it wasn't as if he could leave her, she didn't want to cause tension between herself and the other soul in her body at such a crucial time.

A laugh. It was mirthless, and it didn't originate from Seras. With it, Seras could feel a kind of nervous hope tinged with desperation. Funny how certain things Pip said or did caused his emotions to momentarily become clear to her. "You are running around, fighting for your freedom, your life. I am just a bystander, giving you advice, occasionally seizing some control...but it isn't enough. I'm sorry, Seras, but I can't let you do everything. I can let you keep taking the damage." Another spasm, and this time the cry was Pip's, the voice sounding deeper than Seras's voice should have been capable of. "We are together now. We should each be doing our share."

"I don't understand," Seras admitted. She looked downward. The spasms became steady, taking over her whole abdomen. She could feel her muscles shifting painfully, her skin stretching and contracting again. She'd known shapechanging was in her repetoire of vampiric powers somewhere, but she'd assumed that it was one she shouldn't be using just yet. And that when she did, she'd be the one choosing the time and the form.

A burning feeling errupted from her chest, and she had to bite her lip again to keep from screaming. Her fangs sunk into the not-fully-healed holes from the last time she did it, and she clawed at the top of her uniform. It was starting to feel odd around her, uncomfortable, and she tore it open without even trying to work the buttons. She tore at her bra, which was now too big for her, and looked at her chest. Her breasts were getting smaller, seemingly being absorbed into her chest, and as they flattened she could feel her pectoral muscles shifting painfully to match the new build.

She felt her hips shifting next, the bones of her pelvis melting together as it shrunk, making her grab her side and cry out in pain. As her waist started to widen to make the juncture of her torso and hips less obvious, her skirt ripped a little at the waistline. Her thighs were getting larger, more muscular, and her legs were getting longer. She had to fight through the pain to lean forward and pull off her boots as quickly as possible as her feet started to grow longer. She didn't want to reach between her legs, to feel what else she knew was changing. She thought she could see the outline of it through her ripped skirt. If she stood up, her skirt would fall to shreds.

Her hands had ripped through her gloves as they changed size and shape, and as she examined them she realized that the pain was subsiding. She leant forward as she felt her hair getting longer, longer than it had ever been in her life, and then like a switch being hit she couldn't feel anymore. Only see, and she knew that she could speak if she wanted to.

Pip stood up from his sitting position in the alley, ripping off the last scraps of fabric that made up the skirt, panties, and gloves. He looked out at the world around him from two scarlet vampire eyes. Before joining with Seras he hadn't seen out of two eyes in years, let alone ones this powerful, and now, for the time being, they were his eyes. He reached into his mouth, feeling the fangs there, and then threw his unruly long hair over behind him, wishing that he had a hair tie. Or some clothes. Well, one thing at a time.

"Pip?" It was Seras's accent and cadence, but through his vocal chords the pitch sounded like a bad falsetto. "What did you do?"

"It is just for a little while. You and I are supposed to be working together, after all," Pip answered with a smile. He heard the sound of jackboots approaching through his new sensitive hearing and approached the end of the alley, pressing his body against the building that made him facing away from the direction where the sounds were coming from, his naked flesh scraping against the brick uncomfortably.

There were some words being exchanged in German that Pip couldn't understand, but he couldn't care less. As the sounds came right on the alley, he darted out and grabbed the first two Millenium soldiers he saw by their wrists, twisting them until they broke. Guns fell to the ground, and he scooped them up with speed he had never possessed before. He shot at the heads of the two soldiers until the two vampires stopped moving, thankful that his enemies had the same weaknesses that he currently had. He aimed his guns at the other two soldiers, who were stunned, and had no way of raising their guns to the naked mercenary in time. Neither one seemed to register that said mercenary was supposed to be dead.

"I need clothes," he said simply. "One of you gets to live but has to go back to where he came from bare-ass naked. One of you dies here." He shot both their guns from their hands, causing them to slide across the wet ground. "First one to get down to his knickers is the winner."

The two soldiers began to strip as quickly as possible.

**End**


End file.
